Teaching Critical Thinking Skills with Fairy Tales

 I'm going to try something new this semester with my regular/inclusion English II class.  Over the Christmas break, my wife and I picked up a puzzle book (think escape room in a book).  We've done this before and some of those books can be very hard.  This one is not overly hard, but not overly easy either.  A good enough mix.  The book is The Puzzle Book of the Brothers Grimm.

There are four fairy tales that you have to work through - Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Mother Hulda, and Rapunzel.  The links are to Google Docs I have of the original Grimm's tale. I figured most of my students have probably not read the original, so maybe I'll use those as texts in my class and may add some state test reading comprehension questions to go with them later.  You are welcome to them to use as you would like.  The Hansel and Gretel tale is six pages long, but the other three are only about three pages long. You can buy the puzzle book on Amazon if you are interested.

How does this fit into my class?  Well, my regular level and inclusion classes often struggle with looking past plot level.  Anything to get them thinking critically helps.  Since the puzzles themselves are fairly short, I'm thinking it might be a fun warm-up activity to breaks them into groups of two or three and let them try and figure it out.  Each puzzle comes with three clues (on different pages), so I can factor that in and let them buy the clue with part of their winnings.  In the book, you score 5 "reeds" for each correctly guessed riddle, minus 1 reed for each clue and wrong answer.  I am using "Bobcat Paw Prints" in my class for incentives, so I will just substitute those.  Here is what a typical puzzle looks like:

It's always like this - two page spread and many of the puzzles are visual like this, which I think my regular students will find appealing.  

This may flop, but I've enjoyed figuring out the puzzles for the first fairy tale, so I figured I would go for it!

For Honor and Glory!

Something you to think about trying that I stumbled upon that turned out to be a major motivating factor in my class is giving the option to live forever (or at least until I retire) on the Wall of Glory.

The names on the wall go back to 2015, but only because one year the humidity was so high over the summer that the names fell off and the custodian helpfully threw them away.  They have since travelled with me to my current school.  

I originally did it without thinking about long-term effects, but man has it paid off.  When a student wins Survivor (English IV) or the Pinnacle of Perfection (English II and IV) or becomes the Chosen One (Mythology) or is an Absolute Paragon (a 5 on AP Lit), I put their name on the wall for posterity.  These kids love the idea that students in years to come will be able to see their name on the wall.  

When I started doing this, it was for regular-level classes, but when I moved into some honors and AP, the competition for glory and honor exponentially increased.  It's lots of fun and if you have something that you could adapt this too, give it a shot!

By the way, that NASCAR autograph on my back wall was given to me by a student several years ago.  We were reading 1984 and he got the driver, Scotty Riggs, to sign "I love Big Brother!"  :)

Frankenstein Kahoot!

 For a little fun this Halloween, try giving your kids this Kahoot! I made based on the book Frankenstein.  

They do not have to have read the book - in fact, it is designed specifically for students who have not read the book.  The clever students will soon realize that much of what they know about popular culture Frankenstein's monster has little to do with the monster in the novel.

You can get it here: https://create.kahoot.it/share/frankenstein-introduction/516466e7-6006-4104-a3e4-1d2549871555

CCG Buzz

 

A while back, I showed you a classroom buzzer website called Cosmo Buzz. I like it and the guy who created it is super helpful.  Unfortunately, my school Internet filter (placed on my computer for my safety by the all powerful IT department in my district) doesn't like it.

My DLC shared with us a different site called CCG Buzz.

Start by going here: https://ccg.buzz/host/ and enter in your game name.

This will generate a game code that students will need to enter.  Students then go to http://ccg.buzz/ and enter the code and their name.  They can also enter a team name along with their actual name if that fits your purposes.

They just hit the big circle on their screen.  Red is unbuzzed and green shows buzzed in.Once you open it up for buzzes, it lists the names of your students in order that they buzzed in.

It's nice and simple.  You can keep track of points if you are keeping score.  You may also want to vary it up a bit since the same three kids will constantly buzz in as fast as they can by doing it the radio station way - I'm taking buzzer buzzer 5 this time!

Love Stinks -or- Eight Brief Tales of Lovers

Here's a good lesson if you teach mythology or if you want to incorporate some myths into your world literature course.

The lesson is a type of "jigsaw" group lesson.  This can easily be adapted to any type of short story.

These myths come from Edith Hamilton's Mythology.  I bet there are class sets somewhere in your school.  If you do not currently have a mythology class, then they are probably collecting dust in your Latin teacher's room.

Your school undoubtedly has a class set of these somewhere.

Break your class in to teams.  Depending on the size of your class, you may have to adjust these numbers, cut out a myth or two, or something like that.

One member of the team will go up and get a note card for each teammate.

Round One
Each team member picks one of these four stories:
  "Pyramus and Thisbe"
  "Orpheus and Eurydice"
  "Cyex and Alycone"
  "Pygmalion and Galatea"
Once they have read the story, each person will write down one question on their card.  The group can (and should) work together to come up with the question.

Then return everyone to their original groups (the above will take approximately 12-15 minutes).  They will teach their story to their group.

Do the same thing with Round Two
  "Baucus and Philemon"
  "Endymion"
  "Daphne"
  "Alpheus and Arethusa"

Once the groups have read and returned to teach their team, collect the cards.

Now pit the teams against each other.  Using the cards as the question base, play some game for team points, bonuses, or whatever incentive you like to use.


'nuff said!